France PM aims to revive Middle East peace process

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will head to Israel and the Palestinian territories later this month in a bid to revive the Middle East peace process, his office said in a statement.

Valls will travel to the region May 21-24 in hope the two sides can reach “a peace agreement on the basis of a two state solution,” according to the statement that was released late Tuesday. The announcement comes as France is preparing to host a meeting of 20 world leaders on May 30 to discuss ways of restarting the long-stalled negotiations.

Palestinians have welcomed the French government’s initiative and a statement from the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel remains committed to its position that direct bilateral negotiations are the best way to resolve the conflict.”

The initiative is unlikely to succeed, although it may garner some badly needed support on the left for the unpopular Socialist Party and President François Hollande ahead of French presidential elections, scheduled for May and June 2017.

According to a 2015 poll by the Institut Français d’Opinion Publique, 24 percent of voters on the left, are sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.